A Historical Journey Through Wage Regulations

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I dove into Sam.gov on Tuesday, looking for a request for proposal (RFQ), and the one I thought I might be able to subcontract out to a developer here on Hive (if I won) was a sole source already awarded to someone.

I went ahead and read the documentation and was led back to this wage determination document. This is what the federal government has set as an acceptable minimum payment for its contractors.

I got curious and wanted to know more. Like, what is the difference in pay between a government-contracted person and a regular employee? I found minimum wage by state information. I had no idea states could set their own minimum wage. I also learned that employees get paid the higher rate. I was unable to find a correlation between dates and pay amounts between state and federal wages. But the last time the federal rate was changed was in 2009.

Thinking back now, I am a bit mixed on how accurate of an answer this was to my question, but I plowed on. I found that Massachusetts was the first state to form any form of regulation in protection of women and child labor specifically; however, I could not find a specific set amount. The federal government did not set a standard until 1938, when the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was established.

I think in order to get a better picture of things, sometimes ideas have to be separated. I also believe it is important to remember how historical regulations have changed over time.

This was a bit of a historical eye-opener for me. As an individual who has been doing research on my genealogy, it helps me better understand how my ancestors lived.

Thank you for reading this and I look forward to engaging with you in the comments. If you are coming from outside of hive and enjoyed my content, please consider supporting me.